rare. [f. TAUTOLOGIZE: see -ISM.] The use or practice of tautology; an instance of this. Used by Farrar spec. for the combination of two synonymous words or syllables for the sake of precise expression of the meaning, as in Chinese.
1815. Sporting Mag., XLVI. 117. Hard and callous, form a tautologism.
1816. Bentham, Chrestom., 293. The reproach of tautologism,—incurred … by the observation.
1869. Farrar, Fam. Speech, iv. (1873), 122. This chaos [of homonyms in Chinese]… is reduced to order and meaning … partly by what may be called tautologism, i. e. by using a second synonym to define the word which is vague; in point of fact, by making two vague words into one definite word.
